The present invention relates to a device and a method for adjusting hosiery tension in circular textile machines.
It is known that one of the most important controls that can be performed during the knitting of a hosiery item is control of the force with which the hosiery item is drawn into the circular textile machine, in order to determine the quality of its fabric.
Conventional hosiery tensioning methods are of the pneumatic or mechanical type and are characterized by rigid and inaccurate adjustments. Moreover, the tension applied to the fabric being knit which is designed to constitute the hosiery item cannot be adjusted dynamically throughout the knitting; it is instead necessary to perform mechanical adjustments of the tensioning device,
This clearly does not facilitate chances in the force applied to the fabric that the operator might want to perform.
Moreover, changes in the tension performed manually by the operator by acting on pneumatic or mechanical devices cannot be easily repeated and therefore the changes made in one operating step, seldom, are unlikely to be reproduced with accuracy and repeatability in the knitting of a different batch of hosiery items.
Moreover, pneumatic and mechanical adjustment devices do not allow to apply low-modulus forces and therefore tension adjustment tension is not very precise.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a device and a method for adjusting hosiery tension in circular textile machines, which allow dynamic adjustment throughout knitting.
Within the scope of this aim, an object of the present invention is to provide a device and a method for adjusting hosiery tension, which allow to easily modify the force applied to the fabric of the hosiery item during its production without any kind of constraint.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device and a method for adjusting hosiery tension, which allow to include tension among the data that describe, from the textile point of view, the hosiery item to be manufactured.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device and a method for adjusting hosiery tension in circular textile machines, which are highly reliable, relatively simple to manufacture and at competitive costs.
This aim and these and other objects which will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved by a device for the electronic adjustment of hosiery tension in circular textile machines, characterized in that it comprises actuation means which are adapted to move a carriage, which is in turn adapted to perform a translatory motion along an axis being parallel to a diametrical axis of said circular textile machine, said carriage supporting, at least one transducer connected to a hosiery advancement device, said transducer being adapted to detect a contrasting force due to the advancement of said hosiery item, said contrasting force being processed in controller means which are suitable to emit a speed signal for said actuation means, in order to adjust the movement speed of said carriage in contrast with said contrasting force.